Friend Till the End
by etsunara
Summary: Well, this is it. The final installment of the trilogy. It started with Welcome, Naruto!, then Reunion, and now this. This story will focus on our heroines starting their new life in Konoha, and the adventure s that follow.
1. Intel Gathering

**A/N: Okay, so I've decided to get rid of the author note commentaries. For one thing, they are a **_**lot**_** of work. But, also, I feel like they… for lack of a better word, degrade my writing skill, I guess. I've been working on really improving my writing skills, and I think I have. But I need to improve it all around, which included refining my author notes. I have nothing against commentaries, but, for me, they need to go. Hope you guys understand, and sorry for those of you who liked them. But, hey, more time for my story ^_^ Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Only my OC. Please enjoy!**

**Chapter One:**

**Intel Gathering**

"Okay, you three," Lady Tsunade said. "Thanks to Kye, you all have a new mission. It will just be the three of you. Are you ready?" It had only been a night since I returned to Konoha, but I had no choice but to go on this mission.

"Yes, ma'am!" we said in unison.

"Really, the biggest part of this mission is finding out how much Orochimaru knows. It's more of an intel thing than anything else, but you will have permission to engage the enemy if, and _only_ if, absolutely necessary. We don't want any deaths on our side, and you three are not ready to take him on. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Good, so here's what you need to do." She started explaining where we would go, and where we could stop for food and rest. "Kye, I'll leave the rest for you to explain."

"The rest?" She asked, confused.

"Where you found his hideout, really," she said. "And repeat what you found. Just so we're all on the same page."

"Right," she nodded. She pointed to a mountain north of Takigakure*. "It's up here, about a day past Taki, which will make our journey about four days long, and that's about it." Kye looked up at Tsunade.

"Good, good," she said, still studying the map. Then her head snapped up. "Alright you three, I don't care who's team leader, as long as things get done."

Kye, Akito, and I looked at each other. "I think Kye should lead us." I finally said.

"I think so, too," Akito agreed.

"Wait, why me?" She asked.

"Well, you did find the place," I said.

Akito nodded. "It's only right that you lead this mission."

"Well," Lady Tsunade said, "I guess that settles that. The only thing left to say is good bye and good luck. Go now, leave as soon as you can."

"Yes, ma'am!" We said in unison, and then jumped out the window, not bothering with the stairs in the building. We hurried back to the Nara compound to gather our supplies.

We were all ready in a matter of minutes.

Akito had her lightning sword on her back, and Kye had her two katana on her back, and we all wore a similar outfit of black shirts and pants, since they were better for recon missions.

"You aren't bringing your giant shuriken?" I asked her.

"Nah, there's not need for them on a recon mission," she replied.

I shrugged. "Your choice. You two ready?"

Akito took a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"I'm ready," Kye said. "Why do you sound nervous, Akito?"

"Well, it's just that this is kind of big."

"Don't be nervous," I said. "Just focus on the mission and getting the job done." She nodded in understanding.

"Well, let's get going then," Kye said, and with that said, we set out on our mission.

**Just outside of Taki:**

The sun was just setting on our fourth day of travel.

"Let's set up camp here," Kye said. "There's a cave over there, we should be safe in there."

Akito and I nodded, and we hurried over there. After a quick recon of the cave to make sure it was safe, we set up a fire out of site of the cave entrance, and we got out our map.

Kye smoothed out the map, and pointed to a spot just outside of Taki. "This is where we are," she said, marking it with a pen, and then she pointed to a spot about four miles outside the other side of Taki, "And this is where I found Orochimaru's old base. When I was there, it was totally empty, but it'll be safer to assume it's occupied."

"But doesn't he, like, never go back to an old base?" Akito asked.

"I think he'd run out of bases," Kye responded. "But, even if that's true, it's better to assume the worst and find the best, rather than to assume the best and find the worst."

We both nodded.

"So what's our plan?" I asked.

"We'll wait until morning to make our way over there. Once in, I'd like to stay together if possible. We know what we're looking for, and I know where it is."

"We're looking for files on the Byakugon, correct?" I asked.

"Well, not really," Kye said. "I think I've found everything relate to it there. We're looking for leads to another hide out. Hopefully one with more information. Alright, I guess that's everything. Let's get some rest, I'll take the first watch."

We nodded, and she headed off for her fist watch.

**The Next Morning:**

I was the last watch of the night, so it was my job to get everyone up at the break of dawn. "You all ready?"

"Yup," Akito said.

"Let's head out," Kye said.

It was silent as we made our way through the forest, taking the long way around Taki. We all knew the plan, there was no need for us to discuss it.

After about an hour of jumping through trees, Kye stopped us. "See that cave leading underground? That's it. Everyone's clear on the plan?" We nodded. "Good, let's go."

Silently, we made our way into the base, being sure to mask our chakra as well. Without a word, we followed Kye's lead copying her moves to evade the booby traps left in the base.

Finally she came to a halt at the end of a hall, stopping outside of a large room that looked to be a science lab. "This is it," she whispered. "I don't sense anyone in there, but they could be masking their chakra. Be extra careful. Let's split up."

I nodded and headed over to a cluttered desk. Sifting through the papers, I found nothing Byakugon related, but I did find a journal. Flipping through it, I read things about bleeding butterflies, and dying caterpillars, and other strange things. I figured it was coded, so I slipped it in my backpack for safe keeping, and I continued sifting through papers, and looking through drawers.

"Hey, guys!" Akito called after a while. "Come look what I found!"

We gathered around a world map that had various villages and towns circled, and there were X's through a few of the circles, one being over Konoha.

"What is it? I thought it might have been the locations of his bases, but this place isn't on the map, and Konoha is circled and Xed. Why do you think it's Xed out?"

"I'm not sure," Kye said. "We should take it with us, though. Did you find anything, Darcy?'

"Just a journal, but it's coded, so I'm going to take it back to the village, give it to the interrogation squad, I guess. Did you find anything?"

"No, I didn't," she said. "Let's going back."

We hurried out of the hide out, and made the four day trek back to Konoha.

**Back at Konoha, in the Hokage's building:**

"Thank you for your work, you three," Lady Tsunade said. "Leave it to us to figure out what the map and journal mean. For now, take a well earned break."

"Will you let us know when you figure out what the map and journal mean?" I asked.

"Of course," Lady Tsunade said. "Here's your pay. Take a few days off before you come looking for mission's."

We gave her the affirmative, and headed out to wander the town.

"Hey, guys," I said after walking in silence for a few blocks. "I think we should move out. Get our own pay. We'll be living here from now on, so we can't just take up space in the Nara compound."

"That is true," Akito said.

"And we do have the money to do that," Kye said.

"But what about you and Gaara?" Akito asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, you two will be getting married, won't you want to live together?"

"Yeah, but we have a year, we've been imposing on the Nara's for far too long now," I said.

"Then should we start looking?" Akito asked.

"Yeah, let's go!" Kye exclaimed.

**A/N: Well, I think that's a good place to leave you all. Hope you liked the chapter. I hope I didn't put too much stuff in there, I know I kind of had, like, two different plots for this chapter, but I wanted it to be longish, and I think it all flows, so it works, I think. Review please1**

***Takigakure = Village hidden by Waterfalls.**


	2. House Hunting

**A/N: I'M ON A TRAIN! CHOO CHOO! Anyways, that's why I'm working on this next chapter. As of right now, I'm planning on it being pretty short, just house searching, and possibly getting another mission.**

**Chapter Two:**

**House Hunting:**

"You three want to move out?" Shikaku asked.

"Yeah, we don't want to take up space here anymore," I said.

"You're not taking up space," Yoshino said.

"Even so, we've decided to live here in Konoha," I said.

"Plus, you're no longer out teacher," Kye pointed out.

"We need to get out on our own," Akito put in.

"I suppose so," Yoshino said, but we could all tell she was trying to find a way to counter act our logic. "What about money?" She finally asked.

"We've got plenty of it," I said. "I just got paid a fortune to sign papers."

"Add to that the Intel mission we just went on, that paid a lot, too," Akito said.

"Plus all the mission's we've been going on add up," Kye said.

Yoshino merely sighed and left the room.

"Well, I would recommend you go to the Hokage's building and she can probably give you a list of houses for sale," Shikaku said.

"Thank you," I said. "Let's get going, guys."

The other two thanked him and we made our way over to the Hokage's building.

"What are you guys doing back? I said take a break for a few days," Lady Tsunade said when we arrived in her office.

"I know, we wanted to know if there were any houses for sale," I said.

"Houses? Yes, there are," she said. She dug through her desk and pulled out a packet that had addresses and pictures of houses on it. "Here are all the houses for sale. The owners will give you a tour, and if you decide that is the house you want, you an the owner come back here and you sign a contract and pay the owner for the house. Got it?"

"Yeah, simple enough," I said. I took the packet and led my group out. I pointed at one of the houses. "This is the closest to where we are now. It only has two bedrooms, and one and a half baths, but we could always get a pull out couch, or a queen size bed and two of us could share. You want to check it out?"

"Hold on," Kye said grabbing the packet from me. "What about this house? It has three bedrooms, and two and a half baths."

"But it's way more expensive, and the rent is more," I said.

"We should check out both of them," Akito piped up. "Can I see that?" Kye handed her the packet and she looked it over. "What about this one? It's a few miles outside the village, but it's still technically Konoha property. It's a four bedroom house, two and a half baths, three floors, a kitchen and everything. It is the most expensive one, but we do have enough money for it. It's worth looking into, right?"

"I guess," I said. "We'll go see the one I want first since it's closest, then Kye's choice, then Akito's choice. Does that work for everyone?"

"Yeah," Akito said.

"I guess," Kye said.

"Let's go!" With that said, we headed to the first house.

**Choice Number One:**

"Welcome!" The owner said excitedly. She was a plump middle age woman. "Come in, come in! Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"

"Um," I looked at my friends and they shook their heads. "No thanks."

"Alright, then let's see the house!" She started leading us around. "So here we the dining room and kitchen, and the living room is connected. Oh, by the way, the only thing that will stay here are things that are connected to the house, so the stove, fridge, sink, et cetera. Anyways, to the left of the kitchen is one of the bathrooms, this one just has a toilet and a sink."

We went upstairs and found a short hallway with a bedroom on the left and right, and a bathroom with a toilet, sink and a shower.

After the brief tour and checking out the bedrooms, we headed back downstairs. "Well, what did you three think?"

"Well, I think we're going to look around a bit more. We'll be back if we want this house, though," I said.

She thanked us and we headed out.

"Alright, time for my house!" Kye exclaimed.

**Choice Number Two:**

"Welcome, let's get right to the tour," the owner of this house said. The person speaking was a man in his twenties, and behind stood a woman around the same age, I assumed she was his girlfriend.

On the first floor was a living room connected to the kitchen and dinning room like the first house, but a T.V came with this house, and it was a little bigger. Unlike the last house, there was also an oven. This house was also a two story house, but the top floor was bigger. There was a short hallway at the top floor with the half bath at the end of the hall. There the hall split in two with one bedroom at the end that was connected to a bathroom, and two on the other side across from each other. The final bathroom was at the end of that hall.

We told the couple the same thing after looking around a bit more.

"Now it's my house! Come on, guys!" Akito called out, already running towards the house.

**Choice Number Three:**

When we got there, there was a dad playing with two boys, twins by the looks of it, and a mom sitting on the porch watching them with a smile on her face.

"Hi, ma'am, we're here to look at the house," Akito said as we approached.

"Oh, good," she said with a smile. "Come in."

As we followed her in, I asked, "Why do you want to move? This looks like the perfect place to raise kids."

"They're old enough to get in the Ninja Academy now," she said. "We want to live close to the school. Now, this is the living room, nothing will be staying here, but in the kitchen we're leaving the fridge, microwave, and coffee maker. We're also leaving the table and chairs in the dinning room." Unlike the other three houses, the three rooms were all separate. "Follow me upstairs now." The top floor was a wide open space with a door on the right side leading to a bedroom that had a bathroom connected to a bathroom, and the same one the left side. The third bedroom was on the back wall, connected to a half bath. "The third floor is just the attic. My husband uses it to store his old ninja equipment."

"You mean he's retired? But he looks so young," Kye said.

"he retired when I had the twins to help me raise them," she said.

After looking around again, we headed downstairs.

"What do you guys think? I asked. We were just outside of the house, and the mom had joined her kids playing in the yard.

"Well, obviously I really like this house," Akito said.

"You know, so do I," Kye said.

I nodded. "It looks like we have a decision. I really like this house, and we have enough money for it and for the first payment of rent. Well, let's get the formal stuff done with."

"Ma'am, sir," Akito said coming up to the mom and dad. "We'd like to buy the house."

"Really? That's great!" The mom said.

"If you guys are still looking for a house, we just looked at a nice house with three bedrooms, and it's pretty close to the Ninja Academy," I said.

Kye handed them the packet and pointed out the house.

We met up at the Hokage's building to sign the papers and pay for the house, and once that was done we headed over to the Nara compound.

"We'd like to thank you for your hospitality," I said, and the three of us bowed to them in respect.

"We'd also like to thank you for training us," Kye said.

"Here,' Yoshina handed us a bag of money. "To help start you out. Also, I made you this." She handed us a pot of noodles.

"Thank you," Akito said. "For everything."

We gave them the address so they could come visit us when they wanted to. We gathered our stuff (which was pretty small) and made our way back to the house.

"Alright," I said, "This money is for rent." We had a pile we each contributed to, and after counting our money, decided to add to it so we had enough money for two months of rent. Then we compiled a list of what we needed: Three beds, three dressers, plates, cups, cutlery, and a couch. "That's the basics we need, and I think we have enough money for that. But we are getting low. The couch should be the last thing we get. After that are the beds and dressers, I think the plates and stuff are what we need most."

We all agreed, and budgeted our money as we saw fit, making sure we each had our own spending money, and splitting the rest between food and furnishing.

**A/N: I seriously just typed that whole chapter minus the majority of the last paragraph on the train. Not even kidding. I'm pretty proud of myself. I decided not to do any missions yet mostly because asI was nearing the end there were forty minutes left of the train ride and I wanted to get this done. But there will be missions for the next chapter. Sorry if this chapter was kind of boring, but while visiting Chicago, I really wanted to buy a house there (well, probably a studio apartment for myself) and I decided a break from action was in order. I've just been thinking about this recently because after four/fiveish years of college, this is probably what I'll be doing. It's exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Review please! I'll try to update as soon as I can, but, as per usual, I make no promises.**


	3. Orochimaru's Hideout

**A/N: Let's do this. Hope you all liked the last chapter!**

**Chapter Three:**

**Orochimaru's Hideout**

We had just bought ourselves plates and cutlery, and beds and dressers, and were just settling in when there was a knock at the door.

We answered it to find Shizune there.

"Sorry to bother you, but Lady Tsunade needs to see you immediately," she informed us, and, without waiting, turned to lead us to her office.

"Did you figure out the journal?" I asked her.

"More or less," she said. "Kye, you along with Neji, will go on a mission together to find the base. The journal is decoded, all you need to do is find the base. Well, actually, there are multiple base locations. So, basically, you two will find each base, and see if they're there. I don't think you're ready to face Orochimaru, but if necessary, you may engage the enemy, but, please, for your own safety, try not to, okay?"

"Understood!" She said.

"Akito, I actually have a different mission for you," she said. "Nothing spectacular, just tracking some escaped convicts. You and Kiba will go."

"Yes, ma'am!" Said.

"Alright, dismissed!" She said, and without question, they left.

"Um, what about me?" I asked.

"I have training for you," she said.

"But-"

"No buts," she said. "It's time for me to test you and see how well Sakura has done with your training."

I sighed. "Fine. When are you going to test me?"

"Later," she said. "I'm not sure how much later, though. I'll send for you when I'm ready."

I headed home in a grumpy storm, and sat there reading over scrolls, hoping Lady Tsunade meant later today when she said later, and not a few days later.

**Kye's POV:**

I approached the Hyuga household to find Hinata and Neji training in the courtyard. It only took a moment for him to notice me, and he quickly wrapped up his training session with Hinata.

"Good work today, Hinata," he said. "You're getting better."

"Thank you, Neji," she said quietly, bowing. He returned the bow, and turned to me.

"Can I help you?" His tone wasn't polite, but it wasn't mean. It was rather neutral, actually.

"Lady Tsunade has a mission for us," I said.

"Why us?"

"I'm guessing because of your byakugon. We have to find some of Orochimaru's bases. Come on, we need to pick something up before we leave, I'll explain everything later. But before we go, do you need anything here?"

"Yes, give me just one minute." He spoke in a tone that insinuated that he really would be back in a minute. With that said he turned and walked into the house.

At that speed, I thought my myself, he's going to need more than one minute.

But sure enough, he was back within the minute.

"Wow, that was… quick," I commented.

"I did say one minute. Lead on," he said.

"Do you remember when Hinata was kidnapped?" I asked as we walked to the interrogation building where the decoders were located. He nodded, and I proceeded to tell him about the mission I just got back from, and what we found. I left out the part about the mysterious map since I didn't think it was relevant to our mission. Plus, I didn't know much about it. I had my assumptions, but that was it, and that wasn't much to go on.

"So now we have to follow the directions in this book and search every hide out until we find what Orochimaru has, if anything?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, basically," I said.

"So, you're saying that this could be a wild goose chase, right? I mean, we could find absolutely nothing?"

"Um… yeah, that's also true," I said. "But I know what I found. We need to take this chance, for the sake of your clan." I looked at him. "For the sake of your cousin."

He looked at me, and then he looked ahead. "You're right."

With that said, we hurried to get the journal.

I checked each of my bags at the edge of the village, to make sure I had everything I needed.

"Alright, now let's take a look at that journal," I said, plopping down on the ground and pulling out a map and the journal. Neji sat down next to me, and looked over my shoulder. "Alright, so we're here in Konoha, and according to this journal there's a base here in Kusagakure*, here on an island near the land of waves, here in the land of Sound. Hmm…" I read over the notes quickly, and saw something interesting. "Oh! Here's one. It's in the northern part of the Land of Earth, and it's known for it's research. It's probably one of the furthest ones from here, but I think it's our best shot. What do you think?" I looked up, paying not attention to how close our faces were.

He looked down at the map. "It'll probably take about a week… but it may be the best chance we have. May I see the journal?"

I nodded, and handed it to him. I watched as he scanned page after page, flipping through the book quicker than I thought possible. "Let's go there then. If that doesn't work, then we can work out way down." He reached his arm over me and marked a few more spots adding to the marks I already put down, to indicate where a base was. "Let's get going."

I nodded ,and we headed out of the village at a reasonable pace, jumping up into the trees and heading north.

"There it is," I said. We were hidden in the trees, not too far from Orochimaru's Northern base. "Is there anyone in there?"

Neji closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he had his byakugon activated. He stared intently at the base for a moment before blinking and looking at me. "There are definitely people in there, and lots of them," he said. "Sneaking in won't be an option, and we can't just attack, we're no where near ready to fight him or his men, nor do we have the strength of an army; we're just two people."

I looked at him for a moment, then back at the base, thinking. I looked around at everything, putting possible plan through my mind. Nothing seemed to work, until I saw a caravan. "Neji, what's that?"

He looked down at the caravan. "It's a caravan of… what looks like prisoners."

An idea hit me.

"That's how we'll get in," I said. "We'll get captured."

"Are you… insane?" He asked.

"No. Well, maybe slightly, but I'm serious about this," I replied. "We'll disguise ourselves and get captured by them. Once in, we'll wait until late, when just the guards are up. Then, you use your gentle fist style to knock them out quickly and silently, and we'll grab the keys and get out of the cell. Then we look into the research he has here. Then we get our asses out of there as quickly as possible."

"Hmm… I don't know, he could catch us," Neji said. "It sounds… too easy."

"Do you have a better idea?" I asked.

He was silent for a moment, but then sighed. "No, I don't. It's crazy; insane, actually, but I think it's our best option."

"Think of it this way," I said, with a smile. "We'll have a hell of a story to tell when we get back." I stood up, and he followed suit.

"How do you plan on getting captured?"

"After we disguise our appearance and our chakra, we'll attack the caravan," I said. "Or do you have a better idea?"

He shook his head. "Works fine for me."

We used a transformation jutsu, and were careful about our chakra signatures as we approached the caravan. I looked at Neji, and nodded. Without further hesitation, we charged the caravan, being sure only to use kunai knives or our fists, and not jutsu to fight, so as to not give ourselves away.

We exchanged blows, but Neji and I quickly allowed the guards to overtake us, handcuff us, and throw us in the back of the caravan. Once in there, we kept our heads low to avoid suspicion. Through my peripheral vision, though, I could see we were going through large iron gates. I glanced up, and it seemed as if we were going through a small village. Curiosity got the better of me, and I began looking around. There were houses here and there, and what looked like stores. But the village was short lived, and soon we were going through another gate. This led us to a palace-like building.

This must be it, I thought. Orochimaru's hideout.

The caravan was stopped outside the gate, and all of the prisoners were herded out and into the building. We were pushed stone corridor after stone corridor until we reached a large room with jail cells lining each wall. We were pushed into line, and told to wait.

I wondered what we were waiting for, but we didn't have to wait long to find out what. Or, in this case, who.

Orochimaru entered the room with Kabuto and Sasuke in tow behind them.

"Welcome, all, my honored guests," he started in his cool, snake like voice.

It took all of my self control not to laugh.

"It may feel like you're in prison, but you're not," he said. "Think of the rooms that look like jail cells as your bedrooms, and this room just as an in indoor exercise yard. While you are here, you will stay in this area. You are to get along will your other roommates, and if you fail to do so, you will be sent to solitary confinement. Is this clear?" Silence followed him. One of his trademark creeper smiles crossed his face. He licked his lips, and then said, "Good. Enjoy your time here." He turned to leave with Kabuto behind him. Sasuke, however, stayed behind, staring at me. Our eyes met momentarily before I quickly looked down to avert my gaze.

"Sasuske, are you coming?" Orochimaru asked.

"Hn." Was all that escaped Sasuke's mouth, and he turned and left.

"I… I think he recognized me…" I whispered to Neji.

Neji just looked at me.

The guards were saying something, but I wasn't really listening. Eventually, the prisoners started to disperse, and Neji and I went to stand in the corner so we could see everything and be out of the way to talk to each other.

"So, it looks like one of us, or both of us need, to get locked in solitary confinement," I said.

"If anyone does it, it should be me. I'll have the best chance of getting out, but we should both try to get in there, that way I won't have to break you out of here." I nodded.

"So how do we do it?" I asked.

"Simple," he said. "We start a fight." He made his way over to tall, muscular, scary-looking prisoner, 'accidentally' walking into him.

"Hey!" The prisoner shouted, grabbing Neji the his shirt's collar. "Watch were you're going.

Neji said nothing, he merely kneed the poor man in the balls, and then immediately kicked him in the stomach.

I saw my opportunity in the form of another muscular, scary-looking prisoner (probably one of the other guys friends) charging Neji from behind.

I charged at him and tackled him down to the ground, punching him in the gut and across the face. He quickly pushed me off, grabbing my by the collar of the shirt and tossing me at the wall. With ninja reflexes I managed to save myself, and, using the wall to push myself, I flung myself at the same guy who tossed me.

The brawl only lasted a few moments before guards came and separated us.

"Who started this?" One guard asked.

"He did!" One guy said, pointing at Neji. "And she was with him."

The guard glared at me, then Neji. "Solitary confinement for a week. Both of you." With that said, the guard dragged us off to solitary confinement.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Sorry if it took too long to update, I appreciate everyone who sticks around!**

***Kusagakure = village hidden in the grass**


	4. Escape

**A/N: So, school starts at the end of the month for me. But I'm actually really excited for it, since it's college and stuff. Anyways, here's the story! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Gaara, Hidan, or Shikamaru. Or the story of Naruto. Please enjoy the story while I go cry silently in that corner.**

**A/N: Ahaha^ that's what I wrote back in, like September. And, hey, I did really well my first semester. Got a 3.46 GPA, though I was hoping for a 3.5 or great. Damn Geology… argh…. Anywho, enjoy, it's been forever, I know. I apologize profusely.**

**Chapter Four**

**Escape**

**Kye's POV:**

We were pushed down hallway after hallway until we were pushed through a door into another empty hallway, lined with doors. I was in front, but I could still hear the grunt of a man behind us. My captor turned his head, only to be punched in the nose. He let go of me, and I jumped back, ready for a fight, but Neji had already taken care of everything.

"Now what?" He asked me, looking at me.

"Now," I said, bending down and grabbing one of the guards. "Now, we figure out where to go. Tie up that guy. Once they come to, we'll get the information we need out of them. Then, we put them in solitary confinement."

It only took a few minutes for them to wake up, but it felt like an eternity, and I was paranoid someone was going to come looking for them.

I was at the door peaking down the hallway when Neji's voice called to me. "They're up."

"Finally," I muttered. I went over to one of the guys and knelt before him. "Alright, we're looking for a laboratory. Where is it?"

"I'm not going to tell you anything, girl," he said.

"That's not a very smart thing to say," I said, and I grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, choking him.

He struggled for a bit before he finally said, "Okay, okay, I'll talk just please," he coughed. "Please, put me down." Saying all of that took the rest of his breath away, so he sat on the ground panting and catching his breath when I let him go.

"It's just down the hall," he finally said. "You can't miss it."

"Good," I said, and I smacked him across the head, knocking him out. I did the same with the other guy and we locked them in the solitary confinement cell.

"We need to hurry," Neji said. "They've been gone for too long, now, they'll send people after them soon."

I nodded. "We should change our disguises, too."

Neji nodded, and we took the appearance of the guards before locking them away. As we walked out the door, two more guards came running down the hall.

"There you two are, we got worried," on guard said.

The other one looked suspiciously at us. "What took so long?"

"The two put up one hell of a fight," Neji said.

"But they're locked away now," I said.

"Good, we need you to return to your post now," the first guard said.

I froze, this would ruin our plan. Or slow it down, assuming that no one found the actual guards in solitary confinement.

I was about to speak when an all too familiar voice spoke behind me and Neji.

"There you two are, Lord Orochimaru has been looking everywhere for you." I turned my head to see Sasuke standing there. He didn't look at us, but addressed the other two guards first. "Can you cover their post?"

"Yes, sir!" The other two guards said, and turned and left.

Neji, Sasuke, and I stood there in silence for a while, all staring at each other. Well, Neji and I were staring at Sasuke, while Sasuke was looking where the other two guards were standing.

Finally, Sasuke looked down at me. "What the hell are you doing here, Kye? Or is this Jade?"

"Jade is gone," I said, ignoring his first question.

"I thought you hated me, so, I repeat, what the hell are you doing here?"

"That's none of your business," I said. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay the hell out of my way."

He glared at me. "I'm not your friend; I never was."

That stung a bit. Sure, Jade had liked him, but I thought we had been friends. At least some what. I pushed those emotions aside, however. "If you're our friend, then why even give us a chance to run?"

He glared at me a little longer, but then his face softened, and his shoulders slumped a bit, and he looked away. Finally, he turned and started to walk away. "Get out. Now. I'm going to pretend I never saw you, but if I see you two again, I won't hesitate to kill." With that said, he disappeared down the hall.

"Well, wasn't that nice of him," I said sarcastically, but then I sighed. "Let's just get this mission done."

Neji nodded and we proceeded down the hallway quickly and quietly. We saw the lab at the end of the hall, and as we entered it, we saw Sasuke retreating down another hall. He paused a moment, but didn't look back, and I knew he had sensed us. I shook my head and turned to look at the lab. Surprisingly, it was empty.

"Is it night time or something?" I asked Neji in a whisper.

"I don't know, but this seems too easy," he replied. We looked at each other. "It's probably a trap." I nodded.

"We're already here," I said. "So if it's a trap, we might as well spring it." Neji smiled slightly and nodded. "We should split up and search the room." Neji nodded again, and we hurried to opposite sides.

I started sifting through papers on a table, looking for maps, plan, notes, anything I could that was possibly related to the byakugon. The first desk I was at was a bust byakugon wise, but I did find some of his other research, and I figured it was semi-important, so I grabbed it to show to Lady Tsunade. I moved to a desk, and started sifting through the papers on top. Nothing. I pulled out a drawer and fingered through the files, and still found nothing. I went through all of the drawers, and moved onto the next desk, and still came up with nothing. I looked around and tried to find something that would help me, and I saw computers on one side. I hurried over there, feeling this would be my best shot. I started looking for the obvious "Byakugon" file, knowing I wouldn't find it, but it was still worth a shot. Coming up with no "Byakugon" file, I started opening all the files, finding nothing until-

"Neji!" I called.

"What is-" he froze as he saw what I was looking at. It was a picture of Hinata. I clicked on the arrow pointing at her eyes. The computer zoomed in on her left eye. The picture of her eye moved to the left of the screen, and her byakugon was now activated, and on the right side, words filled the screen. All the information they had on it.

"How do we take this?" Neji asked.

"Um, I'm not-" But I stopped talking as a box popped up on the screen asking if I wanted to download it on a disk. I looked around the desk and found a floppy disk. "Wow, these are so old," I muttered to myself, but I vaguely remembered using them. I grabbed it, and put it in the computer, pressing yes on the box. Another box popped up asking for a password.

"Of course, _now_ it asks for a password," I said. "Um… um… well, this _is_ Orochimaru, so let's try… 'snakes'." I typed it in, and it came up negative. "Hmm… Oh, well, for the hell of it, let's try 'stevenviper'." Shockingly, that actually worked. "Huh, guess we rubbed off on him. The file took a couple of minutes to download, but it felt like hours. Neji was keeping an eye out for approaching enemies, but he kept reassuring me that there was no one there.

"This is too easy; it feels wrong," I said.

"But all that information is right," Neji said. "It's also information they shouldn't know."

Finally, the download was done, and floppy disk popped out. I slipped it in my bag with the other files, and before I left, I wiped the computer of the information I just took, and we turned to leave. We were only halfway across the room, when Neji suddenly turned around, pushed me to the side, and sent a kunai flying towards where we just were. I thought he was trying to hit the computer, but as I looked I saw someone was standing.

My eyes widened.

"Kye, dear, would you please take the hideous disguise off, it really doesn't suit you," Orochimaru said in his snakey voice.

I glared at him, but none the less released my transformation jutsu, and Neji did the same.

"Now, hand over that disk, please," he held out his hand expectantly.

"You knew we were here," I said. "Why didn't you stop us sooner?"

"And risk ruining my lab? I think not," he said approaching us.

"Yeah, well, we're still in your lab, so you stopped us a little too soon," I said. Though all the tables and desks were at the sides, the center was pretty empty.

"Oh, on the contrary, you're right where I want you," he said. He had stopped a few feet in front of us, and, without warning, the floor started to move up. I looked up in surprise to see the ceiling opening above us, and I looked around in even more surprise to find that we rose into an arena. I looked around to see the stands set up like a gladiator ring, and there were people sitting in them. Not a lot, though.

"So you're going to fight us?" I asked.

"Hand over the files you took from me and I won't have to," he said.

I glared at him. Then, without taking my eyes off him, I whispered to Neji, "Do you see anyway that we can run from here?"

He was silent for a moment, then said, "If we have a distraction, I suppose we could run like hell."

"As long as you know a way we can run," I said. "I'm about to do something really crazy, then you have to try and lead us out of here."

"Kye, what-" he started, but I didn't wait for him to finish. I took out the floppy disc and held it up for Orochimaru to see.

"Is this what you want?" I asked.

"Ah, very good, Kye, dear, I knew you'd see reason," he said, holding out his hand for the floppy disc."

"Yeah, well, too bad, 'cause you sure as hell are _not_ getting it," I said, and I tossed the floppy disc on the ground and stomped on it, crushing it to pieces.

"Dammit! Why'd you do that?" He screamed, and while he was temporarily staring at the broken pieces of the floppy disc, I turned and pushed at Neji.

"We need to go. Now!" I cried.

He nodded and led the way. We jumped up into the stands, punching and slashing at enemies as we made our way to the top.

I hesitated at the top, seeing nothing except a lake bellow us, and we were a good twenty feet up.

"Kye, jump, it's our only option," Neji said. I looked back to see Orochimaru coming behind us. "Kye!" Neji yelled my name, but didn't wait for me to react. He grabbed my hand and we were falling in the air. I didn't scream, but my eyes widened as we fell. Neji wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He took out a kunai and slammed it into the wall to try to slow our fall, and it worked a bit, but we were still plummeting towards the lake a little quicker than I would have liked. "Take a deep breath and hold it when I tell you to," Neji ordered. I nodded, and he kicked the wall, sending us as close to the center of the lake. "Now!" He ordered, and I did as I was told seconds before we went under, all the while, he never let go of my hand.

We surfaced in a couple of seconds, and got out of the lake. We didn't bother looking back, and I didn't need the Byakugon to know that we needed to run like hell to get out of here alive and not captured.

We didn't stop running for a while, until we were just outside of Iwagakure*. We were both breathless, but that was better than being captured - or killed.

"I can't believe you destroyed that!" Neji said. "But at least we're out of there alive."

"It's not necessarily all gone," I said. "This might be a lot to hope for, but if we can get back to Konoha quick enough, I may be able to use my Kekkei Genkai to telepathically show Darcy what I found, and she can use her Kekkei Genkai to write it down… at least, I hope it can work that way. But, at the very least, we destroyed what information Orochimaru had."

"That's true," Neji said. We looked at each other for a while, and then he suddenly smiled, ever so slightly. "You did a good job, Kye.'

"Oh, you too, I guess," I said.

"You guess?" He asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Oh, whatever, you know what I mean," I said, "Let's just hurry up and head home."

He just laughed as he followed me around Iwagakure and back home.

**A/N: I bet you guys missed me. I hope you liked it. I think this chapter was pretty damn good, if I do say so myself, and I do.**

***Hidden Stone Village**


	5. Report

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been really busy with college and such. At any rate, enjoy the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Only my OC's.**

**Chapter Five:**

**Report:**

**Kye's POV:**

We arrived at Konoha in about five days because we didn't stop unless we really needed to, and I had been thinking non-stop about the image I had seen on the computer screen, and I was proud to say I could remember most of what it said. We hurried to the hokage's room to report our mission.

"Oh, you two are back," Tsunade said. "That was quicker than expected." Then she took a closer look at us. "You two look terrible! What happened?"

I explained what happened on our mission. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I had no choice but to destroy the disc."

"I understand, but you didn't have to rush back here just to tell me this," she said.

"Actually, yes, we did," I said. "I was thinking that I could use my Kekkei Genkai to show Darcy the image of the computer screen, and she could use hers to replicate that image. It's a slim chance, but it's something, otherwise, I think between me and Neji, we could probably figure out what he knew. But even if that doesn't work, we did erase the files on his computer, so unless he has notes, he's lost all his information. I didn't find any hand written notes, though, and the way he flipped a shit when I smashed the disc, I doubt he has them hidden somewhere."

"Well, Darcy should-" Tsunade started.

"Sorry I'm late!" Darcy cried, bursting through the door. "I - Oh, Kye, Neji, you're back!"

"We need your help," Tsunade told me.

"With what?" Darcy asked.

"I'm going to show you the image of a computer screen we found at Orochimaru's base," I said. "It had the information he had found on the Byakugon, I want to see if you can use your Kekkei Genkai to project the image I show you and see if we can see what it says."

"Okay," Darcy said. "Let me find a good space to project it." She looked around before finally asking everyone to move so she could use the floor. "I'm ready when you are."

"Okay," I said. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the computer screen I had seen. I was damn lucky I had a photographic memory because it was that memory that I projected to Darcy, who immediately projected the image to the floor.

Tsunade was behind us instantly. "Excellent," She said, and I was relieved to see we could read all the words. "He had a lot of information… I'm glad you were able to destroy it. Shizune, I need you to copy this down. Quickly. Neji," Tsunade turned on the jonin. "I need you to keep an eye on Hinata. Speak to your other clan members, like your uncle and the other elders, and make sure they keep a close eye on the clan compound. Inform them that Orochimaru's men will most likely be back to try and get the information again."

"I understand, I'll go immediately," he said. He turned to leave, but then looked back at me. "Good work, Kye. Your methods are rather… unconventional, but they work."

"Thanks, I guess," I said. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment, but coming from Neji, I guess that's as close to a compliment as I would get. I watched as he left, and caught Darcy grinning at me after he left. "What?" I asked, glaring at her, hand on my hip.

"Oh, nothing," she said, but by the grin on her face, and gleam in her eye, I knew it was far from nothing.

_Oh, I _know_ it's not nothing,_ I said to her telepathically, glaring at her still.

_It really is nothing_, she responded. Then added after a little giggle, _I'm just imagining Neji kissing._

_Oh, well-_ I started to say, then realized what she meant. "WE DID NOTHING OF THE SORT!" I yelled, accidentally out loud.

"Wow, I'm not sure what we just walked in on, but I'm sorry we did," a new voice said. Darcy and I both turned to see who it was.

**Darcy's POV**

My face instantly lit up. "Gaara!" A huge grin across my face. I hurried over to my boyfriend - oh, I mean fiancé - and hugged him. He was flanked my Kankuro and Temari, but that wasn't a huge surprise. I heard a giggle, and turn to see Kye grinning at me. I tilted my head in confusion.

_Oh, just imagining him kissing, that's all_, she thought.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

_Well, I guess in your case, _more_ than kissing_.

"KYE GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE DAMN GUTTER!" I shouted. Then I looked up at Gaara. "Sorry for yelling. But wait, what are you doing here?" I looked between him and Tsunade.

"The Chunin Exams," he said.

"I have a task for you, actually, Darcy," Tsunade said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"You are to be his escort while he is in Konoha," she said. "Please, try not to get _too_ distracted."

"Yes ma'am," I said. "Uh, I mean, no ma'am. I mean, I'll escort him, and I won't get too distracted, ma'am. But wait, what about my test?"

"Yes, that's right now," she said, standing up.

"Um, I'm sorry, what?" I asked.

"Your test is now, come with me," she said. "Gaara, feel free to watch your fiancé get the shit beaten out of her." With that said, she headed out. "I'll meet you on the training field."

Uh oh.

"Haha, sound like you're going to have fun," Kye said in a mocking tone. "I think I'll come, too. I'll bring some popcorn, you guys want anything?" She looked at Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro.

Thankfully, Gaara didn't say anything, but Temari and Kankuro took Kye up on her offer and they hurried out ahead of us.

"Don't worry, Darcy, you'll do fine," he smiled down at me, and gave me a soft kiss.

"I hope so," I said.

"Well, I know so," he replied. "Come on, let's go. Lady Tsunade is waiting for you."

I sighed, and we made our way out of the building. On our way out, we ran into Akito, Kiba, and Akamaru.

"Oh, hey guys, welcome back," I aid.

"Hey! How was-" But stopped herself. "Oh, you didn't go on a mission, I forgot."

"Yeah, rub it in, why don't you." I glared at her. But, then closed my eyes and made myself calm down. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to get mad at you. It's not your fault. But if you're looking for Lady Tsunade, she's out on the training filed. She's testing me. Come on."

"Okay," Akito said. "You coming Kiba?"

"Nah, I'll catch up later," he said, and he headed off. "See you guys! Good luck Darcy!" He called over his shoulder.

We made our way to the training field where we found Tsunade, Shizune, Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi, Shikaku, Kye, Temari, and Kankuro.

"Well, I certainly attracted a crowed," I muttered to myself.

It was then that Tsunade noticed Akito. "Ah, Akito, welcome back. I'll talk to you after I'm done testing Darcy. Speaking of…" She turned and looked at me. "Let's do this. Sakura, if she fails, you're going to get a hell of a lot more than just an earful from me."

Sakura gulped, and as I walked past her, she grabbed my collar. "Whatever you do, do. Not. Fail."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I said, trying to sound cocky, but I was shaking inside.

I walked to the center of the training field, feeling all eyes on me, and I faced Tsunade.

"I'm going to come at you with everything I have, and you just have to pray that you live," Tsunade said.

"I- what?" But she was already charging at me. With less than a second to spare, I rolled out of the way. Where I had just been, her fist slammed into the ground, causing a huge crater.

I was so not ready for this.

I was, however, ready for her next blow. I did a quick back flip, evading her punch with a little more time, but still causing her hand to hit the ground.

This continued for some time, until almost the entire training field was filled with craters.

"It's obvious you know you know how to dodge, but if you want to pass this test, you better start attacking," Tsunade said.

"I don't think I need anymore invitation than that," I said. I had been doing more than dodging; I had strategically placed my self by the water. I made some quick hand signs, then shouted, "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!"

I knew Lady Tsunade would dodge, but the jutsu filled the holes Lady Tsunade had made in the ground. This allowed me to move away from the river and still be able to use my jutsu.

Running across the water, I made my way towards Tsunade, and, grabbing a kunai from my holster when I was about three or four feet from her, I flung it at her. She turned slightly to the side to dodge it. Her eyes were off me for a second, but that second was all I needed. In that second, I ran the couple of feet in between us, and landed jumping side kick right on her head. As she was flying through the air, I landed on the water, making some quick hand signs.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Because Lady Tsunade was still flying through the air, the jutsu hit her dead on.

Something didn't feel right, though. This was too easy. Suddenly, I saw a puff of smoke in my jet of water, and I knew why it didn't feel right. I looked around frantically, but then made myself stop, close my eyes, and focused.

It took me a minute, but I sensed her coming from behind me, so I turned, ducked, and pulled out a kunai simultaneously. She also had a kunai, and our knives clashed together. I saw her leg coming at me from the corner of my eye, so I pushed up with my kunai, and jumped back, avoiding her kick. I used my backwards motion as a spring, and jumped quickly at her with a kick, which she side stepped. We each attempted to lay a blow on each other, and we each dodged the other's blows until she finally stopped us.

"Well, it seems you have a lot to learn," she said. I glanced at Sakura who looked really nervous. "But you've learned a lot." She looked at Sakura. "You've learned a lot from a really good teacher." She looked back at me, and with a smile, said, "Good job."

With a sigh of relief, I feel to the ground. Gaara was next to me in a second.

"You did well, baby," he smiled at me, and wrapped his arm around me.

"Thanks," I returned the smile.

Off in the distance, I heard Lady Tsunade talking with Akito about how her mission went, but I didn't really care. I relaxed in Gaara's arms for what seemed like the first time in forever.

The moment ended all too soon when I heard Temari say, "Sorry to interrupt the moment, but we should probably get going."

I looked up at her. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry." I stood and offered my hand to Gaara. "Let's go." I gave him a smile. With that said, and Gaara now standing, his hand in mine, and we made our way to the Hokage building to find where Gaara would be staying.

**A/N: Well, that seems like a good place to leave off. I kinda just realized that Darcy and Gaara's situation is kinda similar to my situation with my boyfriend. That being that Darcy and Gaara both live in different villages, and they will be separated for a while, and my boyfriend left a couple weeks ago for basic training in the air force, so we have plenty of long distance in store for us. Well, hope you enjoyed!**


	6. Training?

**A/N: This chapter is dedicate to AnnaRobsZombies! Hope you enjoy it, hun!**

**Disclaimer: Misashi Kishimoto owns all the characters and settings and what not. Each OC that appears in my stories belong to their respective creators.**

**Chapter Six:**

**Training?**

**Kye's POV**

I lay in my bed, thinking about Neji. Ever since our mission together, I couldn't stop thinking about him.

What's wrong with me? I thought to myself. I'm a ninja, not some silly, love struck schoolgirl.

But, regardless, here I was, thinking about boys. But not just any boy, a specific boy: Neji Hyuga. Someone not known for love and kindness, but rather cold, methodical calculating.

"I suppose he's a good ally to have," I muttered to myself. "Ugh. I so don't have time for this."

Suddenly, Darcy's head popped into my room. "Hey, if you get a second to pause your conversation with yourself, someone's at the door to see you."

"Who?" I asked.

"No one, just your boyfriend," Darcy said as she walked away from my room.

"My… boyfriend…? I don't have a boyfriend," I said to no one in particular as I made my way to the door.

There, standing in the doorway of our house, was just the person I was thinking about.

"Neji?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"After our mission together, I was thinking," he said. "You had some good ideas. Would you want to talk about strategy? Over ramen, perhaps?"

"Is this a date?" I asked.

"I-I suppose it could be considered that by some," Neji said. "Perhaps you would want to train, too? I could teach you a lot."

I opened my mouth to say something sarcastic and witty, but, something else came out of my mouth. "That would be great." I smiled at him.

What the hell was that? I wondered to myself. What happened to my sarcasm?

He smiled. "Great, then let's go."

When I turned to close the door behind me, the last thing I saw was Darcy and Akito grinning like madmen. Or madwomen.

I sighed and followed Neji to Ichiraku's Ramen, where we discussed my crazy methods.

"I only bring this up because I just wonder, if we had stood there for just a little longer, would you have been able to think up a different distraction?" Neji asked.

"Oh, I had plenty of ideas," I replied, picking at my ramen with my chopsticks. "Smashing the floppy disk just seemed more fun."

He gaped at me. "So you risked that information just for some fun? What if you didn't remember all of that?"

"Oh, I had faith in my memory," I explained. "But on top of that, I needed to see his reaction. Before I came to this world, I worked with Orochimaru a bit to fight against the Akatsuki while he was in our world, so I can kind of read him. At least, I was able to read him enough to know his reaction was genuine."

"So you did that to make sure he didn't have the information anywhere else?" Neji asked. I nodded. "Impressive. So it was more than just an impulse, or a bit of fun."

"Yeah, sometimes I actually have reasons behind my actions," I said. "I can surprise even myself sometimes."

We had finished our ramen, and were sitting there discussing different scenarios for a while.

"I'd like to work with you on future missions," Neji suddenly said. "I mean, we worked well on the last one, so I think we'd do a good job on future missions."

"I think we would, too," I agreed.

"Would you like to go train?" He asked.

"Yeah, I would," I said. At the same time we both pulled out money to pay.

"I can pay," we both said at the same time.

"I'll pay," I said. "It's the least I can do if you're gonna train me."

Neji hesitated, and, unable to find an valid argument against me, nodded, and said, "Fair enough."

"So what are we going to work on?" I asked.

"I was thinking of basic taijutsu. We'll work on basic fighting stances and stuff, and we'll work our way up to me teaching you how to get around the gentle fist style without being able to use byakugon. If you can evade and defend against the gentle fist style, you can stand your own against just about anything."

"Okay, sounds fun," I said.

We got to the Hyuga manor, and we faced each other in the large courtyard.

"I want to get a better feel of your taijutsu, so let's start with a quick spar," he said. "It'll be a good way to warm up, as well. No weapons, ninjutsu, or genjutsu, though. I need to test your taijutsu if I'm going to train you at all."

I nodded. I moved my right foot back, bent my knees, fisted my hands, and put them in front of my face, taking a basic fighting stance. He did a little bit of a different fighting stance - I think Darcy showed me something like this; I think she called it a tiger stance. He was on the ball of his right foot, with his left foot at a forty-five degree angle, and his knee bent. His hands were straight, with his thumbs bent, and they were in front of his face like mine*.

"Ready?" He asked, I nodded, lowering my stance only slightly. "Begin!" He lunged ad me, and I side stepped, using my lower stance as a spring of sorts to move quickly. I sent a kick at his side, which he blocked by grabbing my leg. He kicked me, and I blocked by grabbing his leg, and we were locked with our kicks being held by the other. Simultaneously, we let go, and each landed a punch on the other, sending the other flying back.

The fight continued in a similar style. It was like we were perfectly in sync. I knew he was strong than me, though, and that he had more stamina then me. But, at this moment, it was like we were performing a beautiful, yet dangerous dance. We were perfectly in sync, we matched the others kick with a similar kick, and followed it up with a punch.

But this dance couldn't last forever, I was quickly running out of stamina, and my breathing was coming quicker and quicker, while he was still breathing normal.

Finally, he sent a kick at me that I couldn't block, and it knocked me off my feet. I sat on the ground, trying to get my breathing under control. After a minute, I was breathing more regularly, and Neji's hand appeared in front of me. I took it, and he helped me up.

"I'm impressed you lasted that long," he said. "You have a really good defense, but we need to work on getting your stamina up."

"How will we do that?" I asked.

"Running," he said. "And lots of training that Gai Sensai put me through."

"Oh, boy," I said completely unenthusiastically.

"No one said training would be fun," Neji said.

"No one said I had to pretend to enjoy it," I countered. Thank God, my witty statements were back. It also seemed like Neji was picking up on them.

He smiled. "That is true." We stood there staring at each other for a while. It was nice to look at him. He finally broke the silence with a cough, and said, "I'd like to start with some basic stance training. I want to teach you the tiger stance."

He started explaining it while he showed me.

"Now you try," he said.

I did as he showed, and, not even a couple seconds after making the stance, my legs began to hurt and soon they stated to shake a bit.

"Does it hurt?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Good, you're doing it right," he said. He went to sit on the ground in front of me. "I want you to hold that stance."

"For how long?" I asked.

"Until I say you're done," Neji said, smiling up at me from the ground.

I groaned, and he laughed at me.

"Neji! It's been hours! Can I stop now?" This was the first time I broke down complaining, and I was very proud of myself. I looked down at Neji. "Are you sleeping? Neji? Neji!" I finally screamed. His head snapped up, and he looked at me questioningly. "Were you sleeping?"

"I might have zoned out," he said.

"Zoned out?!" I cried. "Look, can I stop, it's been hours."

He looked up at the sky, and then looked at me. "Yeah, sure, you can stop now."

I sighed with relief, and fell to the ground.

Neji just laughed. "You'll thank me later."

"Really? When?" I asked. "When you're in you grave and I don't have to deal with your training? But I suppose I'd be thanking whoever put you in your grave." I said sarcastically.

"I'm guessing that person will be you," he said.

By the way he was laughing, I figured he picked up on my sarcasm. None the less, I added, "I was just kidding. About the whole grave thing. I don't want you dead."

He laughed. "I know, Kye. I've begun to pick up on your sarcasm."

With nothing better to say, I just said, "Oh, that's good."

We sat there for a while, staring t each other.

"Key, I," he said, looking down. "Um, well, I'm not really sure how to say this. You're really amazing, and I really like you. Would you like to be with me?"

I stared at him, and finally realized he was asking me out. "Are you… asking me out?"

"I suppose that's what most would call it," Neji said.

"Like, you want me to be your girlfriend?" I asked.

He finally looked up. "Yeah, would you like to?"

"I think I'd really like that," I said with a smile. He smiled back, and we spent the rest of our "training" session talking.

**A/N: AnnaRobsZombies, I hope you liked it!**

**I also hope everyone else enjoyed it! Let me know what you think!**

***I'm actually not sure if Neji does a stance like this, like, ever. But it just seemed like a Hyuga thing. You can look it up on YouTube to get an actually visual of the stance if you want. Just search "Taekwondo tiger stance". This was probably my favorite stance in Taekwondo. It hurt the first time you did it (and many times after until you got used to it), but it was really fun.**


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